Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Get your Windows license refund

en.refund4freedom.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 350 posts

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#161

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

davsti4 wrote: post #116
AnodicElegy wrote: post #108

I switched two of my PCs over to Linux Mint last week. The automatic driver support is shockingly good compared to when I last installed Linux on a PC (almost 20 years ago). It even found a driver for the random no-name USB wireless receiver I bought on Amazon, whereas I had to install that driver manually on Windows. Part of my motivation was that one of the machines was still on Windows 7, but more than anything it…

I switched my primary PC over in 1999, my secondary over in 2001, and haven't looked back since. You're in a better place today than back then as finding software solutions to common problems is much easier now. For other OS needs, just virtualize. I started off using VMware Workstation, after a decade (or so) transitioned to Virtualbox, and now today, virt-manager (qemu, kvm through libvirt).

It was so brutal in 2006 that it took me nearly 20 years to shrug it off and try again.

I’m not proud of this, but it’s the truth.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#162

Post by hn_submit »

The real culprit is Microsoft's licensing which gives PC manufacturers a "discount" when they install Windows on all their computers. As soon as they deliver machines without it they lose the discount on all the Windows machines they sell.

This should be challenged in court and prohibited by law. But so far, no computer manufacturer has dared to do so for fear of losing the ability to sell their computers with Windows pre-installed.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#163

Post by bilekas »

throw902309 wrote: post #80
blaze33 wrote: post #75

In 2011 I got a 143€ reimbursement from Dell for an E6420 laptop that I had bought for 910€. Maybe I got lucky but I called the customer service, told the lady I did not agree with the Windows license terms, fully ready to argue my case and she just went "oh, ok, let me just edit a new invoice and wire you the money for Windows plus the Antivirus plus etc.". Which was extra nice because I had no idea I was in fact ch…

I would rather get full refound for laptop, if I disagree with the license. Windows is unseparatable from hardware after all... Use laptop for a few months, than finally boot windows install...

This makes almost no sense, so you would return the whole laptop due to Windows being on the machine once before ?

> Windows is unseparatable from hardware after all...

What are you talking about ? The TPM ? Not windows', they enforce once being there for W11 but it's not some trojan M$ code ?

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#164

Post by pkaye »

fwipsy wrote: post #78
mixdup wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why Dell doesn't have a process. You can just buy a Dell machine without Windows in the first place

I applaud Dell for offering this as an option, and for getting Ubuntu certification even on many devices which don't offer it. However, in practice it's not worth much because the standard configurations are discounted, while custom configurations with Ubuntu are not. For example, in this configuration Ubuntu is listed as $140 more than Windows. If you click the info icon, it's because it's $60 cheaper but loses you…

Dell probably gets money from other companies for the additional bloatware software installed on Windows system.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#165

Post by tough »

Telaneo wrote: post #97
blaze33 wrote: post #75

In 2011 I got a 143€ reimbursement from Dell for an E6420 laptop that I had bought for 910€. Maybe I got lucky but I called the customer service, told the lady I did not agree with the Windows license terms, fully ready to argue my case and she just went "oh, ok, let me just edit a new invoice and wire you the money for Windows plus the Antivirus plus etc.". Which was extra nice because I had no idea I was in fact ch…

I have a sneaking suspicion that Dell probably had standing orders to not bother to argue with someone who wanted a reimbursement for Windows, and just get it over with. If you care enough to want that, you care enough to argue your case and make life a hassle for everyone if Dell refuses. To even ask the question is a shibboleth that instantly marks you as someone on the edge of the bell curve. I also have a similar…

It's been very funny to go through life discovering such shibboleths exist in so many random places and its like getting a powerup to even find out about them...

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#166

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

Brendinooo wrote: post #99
wellthisisgreat wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m really curious how many people run this kind of skin unironically. Unironically here means they’d actively seek out to make their desktop OS look… 30 years old? No shade at all, just curios. I def have all kinds of warm feelings towards the moment I first installed W ‘95 but wow I can’t imagine having that UX as my daily OS today.

I don't run this kind of skin unironically but I do think that desktop GUIs used to be a lot more intuitive in some ways. They were still educating PC users on how to use PCs and so there was less of a temptation to hide features and smooth things out for the sake of pure aesthetics. (The slide-to-unlock on the original iPhone OS comes to mind as an analogy on the phone: babies could figure it out, but by iOS 7 they…

>I don't run this kind of skin unironically

… hang on, I’m still parsing this.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#167

Post by openfront »

scrollop wrote: post #127
AnodicElegy wrote: post #108

I switched two of my PCs over to Linux Mint last week. The automatic driver support is shockingly good compared to when I last installed Linux on a PC (almost 20 years ago). It even found a driver for the random no-name USB wireless receiver I bought on Amazon, whereas I had to install that driver manually on Windows. Part of my motivation was that one of the machines was still on Windows 7, but more than anything it…

Finding it's much easier to migrate to linux with an llm as a troubleshooting assistant. Even used it to make a task bar applet adjacent to Media Controls, where I can rate the current plexamp song without having to open plexamp. A big plus of linux is the easy ability to use workspaces and switch between them with a hover over the workspace taskbar applet and the mousewheel (and other options).

I run claude code with 'dangerously skip permissions' flag enabled, and just tell it what I want. I hardly even interact with the OS anymore. I literally just tell it "install X, fix problem Y".

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#168

Post by tough »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #161
davsti4 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched my primary PC over in 1999, my secondary over in 2001, and haven't looked back since. You're in a better place today than back then as finding software solutions to common problems is much easier now. For other OS needs, just virtualize. I started off using VMware Workstation, after a decade (or so) transitioned to Virtualbox, and now today, virt-manager (qemu, kvm through libvirt).

It was so brutal in 2006 that it took me nearly 20 years to shrug it off and try again. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the truth.

Its been only 20 years since 2006 maybe you meant 19?

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#169

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #77
G_o_D wrote: post #30

So after fighting windows for 30yr i also have started searching for linux os to switch to. Might feel weird initially but its a must now. 60% of my time spending on windows is wasted in refreshing/slowstartup/installing bloat and updates/. Clicking next > next etc multiple time just to install one software. Winget is not upto mark like apt and other unix package managers. As soon as i install chocolatey or 3rd party…

I work in the refurb department of an e-waste recycling company. I put Linux Mint on most of the PCs I list for sale, and I've never had anyone complain. I haven't tried Fedora in like 20 years, but I remember odd things being broken, adding up to a death by a thousand cuts, but I've never had a bad time with Mint (or anything based on Debian).

Love this. That someone is like “yo this was cheap, and windows looks fucked up, but it runs well!”.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#170

Post by onemoresoop »

93po wrote: post #146
scrollop wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding it's much easier to migrate to linux with an llm as a troubleshooting assistant. Even used it to make a task bar applet adjacent to Media Controls, where I can rate the current plexamp song without having to open plexamp. A big plus of linux is the easy ability to use workspaces and switch between them with a hover over the workspace taskbar applet and the mousewheel (and other options).

A recent ubuntu update made my boot fail - the splash screen for disk decryption has a known bug in the latest update for my exact video card. Being able to get into terminal-only recovery mode and launch Codex CLI and ask it to diagnose the problem was incredibly nice. I don't think I'll ever deviate from Linux again since most of my issues with it were random bugs like this, but they're now easily solvable.

I agree, using LLMs makes all the linux issues very easy to troubleshoot. However, Im not sure it’s ready for the masses just yet.
Post reply on HN